Conventionally, there is an advance payment service with which, when a consumer entrusts baggage to a home delivery dealer for the dispatch of the baggage to a destination using home delivery, the consumer pays the dealer a delivery fee. There is also a charge-on-delivery service with which a delivery charge is paid to a home delivery dealer when baggage is received at the home of the consumer as the destination.
In addition, for shopping performed at an Internet shopping mall on the Internet, for example, a consumer orders from a store at the Internet shopping mall a desired product displayed on the screen of a personal computer.
Then, a selection screen appears for selecting a payment method for the price charged for the product, either a credit or a cash payment settlement. When the consumer desires and elects to use the credit settlement method, a screen appears that instructs the consumer to enter the number of his or her credit card and to designate a home delivery dealer for the delivery of the product.
The consumer then transmits, across a network, a PIN number and the number of a credit card issued by a credit card company or the number of a cash card supplied by a financial institution, which the vender has joined. As a result, the account is settled through the credit card company or the financial institution.
However, for a conventional advance payment service or charge-on-delivery service, a consumer pays a home delivery dealer a delivery charge in cash. Therefore, when the consumer does not have cash and the home delivery dealer does not have change, a settlement cannot be effected.
Furthermore, when shopping at an Internet shopping mall, important personal information, such as a credit card number or a cash card number and a PIN number, must be transmitted to a vender across a network. Therefore the leakage of data is feared.